Against a backdrop of drastic changes in economy and population structure, younger Americans are drawing a new 21st-century road map to success, a latest poll has found.

    Across generational lines, Americans continue to prize many of the same traditional milestones of a successful life, including getting married, having children, owning a home, and retiring in their sixties. But while young and old mostly agree on what constitutes the finish line of a fulfilling life, they offer strikingly different paths for reaching it.

    Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely than older adults to prioritize personal fulfillment in their work, to believe they will advance their careers most by regularly changing jobs, to favor communities with more public services and a faster pace of life, to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting married or having children, and to maintain that children are best served by two parents working outside the home, the survey found.

    From career to community and family, these contrasts suggest that in the aftermath of the searing Great Recession, those just starting out in life are defining priorities and expectations that will increasingly spread through virtually all aspects of American life, from consumer preferences to housing patterns to politics.

    Young and old converge on one key point: Overwhelming majorities of both groups said they believe it is harder for young people today to get started in life than it was for earlier generations. While younger people are somewhat more optimistic than their elders about the prospects for those starting out today, big majorities in both groups believe those “just getting started in life” face a tougher climb than earlier generation in reaching such signpost achievements as securing a good-paying job, starting a family, managing debt, and finding affordable housing.

    Pete Schneider considers the climb tougher today. Schneider, a 27-year-old auto technician from the Chicago suburbs, says he struggled to find a job after graduating from college. Even now that he is working steadily, he said. “I can’t afford to pay my monthly mortgage payments on my own, so I have to rent rooms out to people to make that happen.” Looking back, he is struck that his parents could provide a comfortable life for their children even though neither had completed college when he was young. “I still grew up in an upper middle-class home with parents who didn’t have college degrees,” Schneider said. “I don’t think people are capable of that anymore.”

答案精析：根据第三段可知，美国年轻人对工作生活有许多观念倾向，其中作者提到年轻人在婚前会确保双方的经济安全，由此可知，年轻人看重婚前的经济条件。因此选择C项。

错项排除：文章指出，年轻人喜欢快节奏的生活和定期换工作，因此排除A项和B项。文章指出只有父母都外出工作才能给孩子提供更好的生活，而不是家庭外的儿童保育，因此排除D项。

长难句分析：Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely than older adults to prioritize personal fulfillment in their work, to believe they will advance their careers most by regularly changing jobs, to favor communities with more public services and a faster pace of life, to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting married or having children, and to maintain that children are best served by two parents working outside the home, the survey found.

本句主干为Young people…were more likely…to prioritize…to believe…to favor…to agree that…to maintain that…。谓语成分由多个并列的不定式充当，其中believe, agree和maintain后面都跟的是宾语从句，作句子主干的宾语。句首的who are still getting started in life是由who引导的定语从句修饰Young people，用于对主语做进一步描述。句末的the survey found作插入语，用于表明句子内容的来源。

句意为：调查发现，与较年长的成年人相比，刚刚开启人生的年轻人更重视在工作中实现个人价值，他们认为定期换工作最能促进事业；愿意住在有更多公共设施的社区，喜欢快节奏的生活；他们认为夫妻在结婚和生孩子前必须有经济保障并坚信在有孩子以后，父母双方还是应该工作，这样才能给小孩最好的生活。